Africa – 26 September 2014

ICC to investigate Central African Republic atrocities
The International Criminal Court has opened a formal investigation into an “endless list” of atrocities committed in the Central African Republic.The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said on Wednesday: “My office has gathered and scrupulously analysed relevant information from multiple reliable sources.”
The move comes after a preliminary ICC investigation earlier this year into the violence that has plagued the country for more than 18 months established that there were grounds to prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity. Mail and Guardian

Ramaphosa returns to Lesotho, pursues mandate for peace restoration
Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa will return to Maseru, Lesotho, to pursue a regional mandate to help restore peace, stability and democracy to the country, his office said on Sunday.
Ramaphosa, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) facilitator, would be in Lesotho on Monday and Tuesday, Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said in a statement. “Since his appointment by the SADC double troika of heads of state and government plus DRC [Democratic Republic of Congo] and Tanzania, the facilitator, Deputy President Ramaphosa paid his first visit to the Kingdom of Lesotho on Thursday 18 September.” Mail and Guardian

Africa’s female fighters: They bled and died on the battlefields of freedom – and were forgotten after victory
Up to 30% of the total forces in the Tigray and Eritrean liberation movements were women.
AT a recent international women’s summit in Tokyo on human security and violence against women, especially in war zones, African women leaders spoke out strongly against the atrocities meted against women. Mail and Guardian

‘Non-cooperative’ Kenyatta delays ICC trial again
President Uhuru Kenyatta has been summoned by the International Criminal Court for his role in election-related violence, but he has not co-operated.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyata gives the ICC and prosecutors the run around over summoned court appearances.(Getty)
The International Criminal Court (ICC) said, on Friday, that it had issued Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta with a subpoena to appear before the tribunal over charges that his government has withheld documents requested by prosecutors preparing his trial for crimes committed against humanity.
Kenyatta, who faces five counts at the ICC over his alleged role in masterminding election-related violence in 2007-2008, was ordered to appear on October 8 2014, it was released in a statement by the Hague-based. Mail and Guardian

Demilitarizing epidemic diseases in Africa
RFI President Obama has responded to the Ebola crisis in Africa by sending 3,000 military personnel to the affected region. The real beneficiary of this militarised messianism is, in fact, the military-industrial complex back in the US
The international system has long become inured to the relentless hiccup of African insecurity malaise. Major clichés and few strong allegories conjure up the spasms of this ongoing malaise to the point of oversimplifying the field of African security. A cascade of crises encapsulated by patterns of sociopolitical ‘fragility’, ‘failure’, and ‘vulnerabilities’ has been plying the continent’s security environment with regards to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the Ebola outbreak in West and Central Africa, as well as the hydra of terrorism and bout of violent conflicts. To be sure, the continent as a surrogate ideological battleground between Western democracies and a soviet-centric security dilemma has been put to rest. Noticeably today, a post 9-11 terror-centric security messianism has been perking up on Washington’s foreign policy chariot wheels in Africa. This security messianism is characterized by an insulated minimalist engagement riding on a missionary rhetorical commitment to African security. Pambazuka.